1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an image forming apparatus, a replacement toner cartridge management apparatus, and a replacement toner cartridge management system which manage replacement toner cartridges to be loaded in place of toner cartridges loaded on an image forming apparatus; a replacement toner cartridge management method; a recording medium having a fuser control program stored thereon to make a computer of the image forming apparatus execute processing; and a recording medium having a replacement toner cartridge management program stored thereon to make a computer of the replacement toner cartridge management apparatus implement the replacement toner cartridge management method.
2. Description of the Related Art
The following description sets forth the inventor's knowledge of related art and problems therein and should not be construed as an admission of knowledge in the prior art.
Conventionally, if the remaining consumable resource in a consumable unit loaded on an image forming apparatus such as an electrophotographic copier, an electrophotographic printer, or an electrophotographic multifunctional machine called MFP (Multi Function Peripheral), for example, the amount of remaining toner in a toner cartridge is lower than a predetermined level, the image forming apparatus determines that the toner cartridge will run out of toner in a short time (the toner cartridge is nearly empty) and displays a message stating that the toner cartridge is nearly empty on a display panel provided thereon so that the user can notice it. Noticing this message, the user prepares a replacement toner cartridge, or places an order for a replacement toner cartridge if not having it in stock.
Meanwhile, in recent years, an image forming apparatus which is connected with a management apparatus to exchange information with has been more commonly used in a remote management system (for example, Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 2002-297969). In many cases, a retailer of image forming apparatuses or a provider of office supplies have their own management apparatus in their own place, in order to collect, store, and manage for their business, various types of information including toner near empty information from a plurality of image forming apparatuses in their users' places. Being connected with the image forming apparatuses, the management apparatus is capable of recognizing a nearly empty toner cartridge or a new toner cartridge.
In some cases, the management apparatus is further connected with an order receiving apparatus receiving orders for a replacement toner cartridge (for example, Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 2008-271231). In such a case, the management apparatus further transmits an order to the order receiving apparatus, so that a replacement toner cartridge will be delivered to the user. In other words, this is exactly a system to automatically deliver replacement toner cartridges to users while they need not bother to place an order for them.
As for a fuser which fuses toner to a sheet of paper or the like, the induction heating method (IH method) has drawn considerable attention for its capability of rapid heating and highly-efficient heating, receiving requirements for reducing the time required for warm-up and energy consumption. To explain an ordinary fuser using the induction heating method, a fuser portion (such as a roller or a belt) heated by an electromagnetic induction coil and a pressure portion (such as a roller) are pressed against each other and a nip area is created between these portions. And a sheet of paper carrying toner thereon goes through the nip area to have the toner fused and firmly fixed thereon.
Such an ordinary fuser using the induction heating method is provided with a resonance circuit consisting of an inductive coil and a capacitor connected to each other (for example, Japanese Laid-open Patent Publication No. 2001-043965). And the alternating-current power of one frequency from a commercial power supply is converted into the alternating-current power of another frequency by an inverter circuit, then is applied to the resonance circuit. By exciting the inductive coil in this way, the hot portion is heated.
An image forming apparatus employing such an induction heating (IH) fusing method performs the fuser temperature control by controlling the power input to an induction heating (IH) fuser heater. The power input to the IH fuser heater is reduced depending on the use of the user operating the image forming apparatus. When the image forming apparatus operates at high speed with power from one outlet, the power input to the IH fuser heater is sometimes reduced because the maximum input power is limited to 15 A according to the regulation in Japan.
The following are the cases in which the power input to the IH fuser heater is restricted and enough power for the fusing process cannot be reached.
[1] The fuser can be hardly heated under the circumstances with low temperature and low humidity.
[2] A particular type of paper which takes much amount of heat from the fuser is used for making copies or many copies are made with a high ratio of B (black) to W (white).
[3] The fuser, not yet heated enough is used for the first time for the day, for continuously making copies.
[4] A plurality of options requiring rather much power (finisher, ADF, and the like) are installed on the image forming apparatus, and some of them are running at the same time. (For example, while sheets of paper are continuously read by the ADF, the printed sheets are stapled by the finisher).
When the power input to the fuser is reduced in the cases as described above, an amount of heat high enough to fuse toner to a sheet of paper is not obtained, and thus a permanent image cannot be perfectly created thereon because of bad fusing. To prevent such a possible trouble, conventionally, the interval between sheets of paper is set longer than normal or the print operation is temporarily stopped, by quality keeping control. However, such a solution involving the control operation may cause another trouble; the productivity of printing may decrease to lower than a standard level, which is penalizing users.
On the other hand, for recent years, low-melting-point toner requiring a fuser temperature much lower than the conventional type of toner has been developed and just been started to be applied to practical use. Requiring a lower fuser temperature, the low-melting-point toner can contribute to the image forming apparatus's reducing the time required for warm-up and energy consumption. The low-melting-point toner also may contribute to reducing the frequency of or eliminating the reduction of the input power. However, having not yet been commonly used, the low-melting-point toner still costs more than the ordinary toner.
Furthermore, when the power input to the IH fuser heater is reduced, the productivity of printing easily or hardly decreases depending on the user, i.e. the use, printing conditions, and the location of the image forming apparatus as described above. Users who rarely encounter the case of the decrease in productivity due to the reduction of the input power would not need to use the low-melting-point toner because a permanent image can be perfectly created even with the ordinary toner.
Therefore, it would be better to select either the ordinary toner or the low-melting-point toner depending on the use of the user operating the image forming apparatus.
Using multiple types of toner cartridges, the image forming apparatus needs to identify them to perform the fuser temperature control accordingly.
Furthermore, there is an idea of loading an information recording medium such as a memory chip on a toner cartridge; writing information such as a type of toner contained in the toner cartridge on the memory chip; then adding to the body of the image forming apparatus a feature to access the memory chip, in order to allow the image forming apparatus to perform control perfectly with a consideration of the characteristics of toner by reading out data from the memory chip. To the contrary, more types of toner cartridges recently do not have a memory chip inside for the saving on the costs of toner cartridges. Therefore, another method of identifying the type of the toner in a toner cartridge based on the toner characteristics is required.
Meanwhile, if the image forming apparatus uses multiple types of toner, the following are possible troubles.
[1] A Toner Cartridge Containing a Certain Type of Toner is Replaced with a New One Containing a Different Type of Toner
Since different types of toner with different characteristics (which require different optimal fuser temperatures) are mixed in a development unit, and the optimal fuser temperature is changed depending on, the ratio of the ordinary toner to the low-melting-point toner in the development unit.[2] Different Colors and Types of Toner are Contained in the Toner Cartridges in a Color Image Forming ApparatusWhen some of the toner cartridges uses the ordinary toner while the other ones uses the low-melting-point toner, the optimal fuser temperature is changed depending on the proportion of the colors of the toner transferred to paper.[3] The Case [1] Combined with the Case [2]In this case, the trouble is more complicated.
As described above, it is effective to use multiple types of toner and perform the fuser temperature control, which still leaves some troubles unresolved.
The description herein of advantages and disadvantages of various features, embodiments, methods, and apparatus disclosed in other publications is in no way intended to limit the present invention. Indeed, certain features of the invention may be capable of overcoming certain disadvantages, while still retaining some or all of the features, embodiments, methods, and apparatus disclosed therein.